By now if you've either shown up here at the blog or talked to me you know I am nearly consumed by Twitter. Not in a way that is destructive, but in a "I wonder how this thing can do good, not evil" sort of way. Yesterday morning I tried something new ... For some reason I decided to head over to one of my colleagues sites to see what was new and saw that he had added a link to his newly created Twitter page. He didn't just have the link, he added a little commentary saying that "Big Brother Begins."
Seeing that I decided to see if I could create an opportunity for engagement ... I quickly created a very short post over at the ETS Blog space asking if Twitter is Big Brother. From there I simply sent out a quick Twitter asking for my friends to respond to a post over at the ETS site.
I know it didn't create a ton of conversation on the blog, but it did in real life. I will say that within 10 minutes two people responded and posted comments from my Twitter network. What I wanted to see was if Twitter could spark (and perhaps encourage) discussion in another form. It has me wondering how students would react to similar stimuli ... you know, ring the Twitter bell and see if they respond the way you've conditioned them. Maybe ask an instant poll via Twitter (like Brad did yesterday) as class is ending and see what you come up. Like I said, I am really interested in how this shakes down for good, not evil. I am interested in how this type of quick, casual conversation can create an opportunity for a larger conversation. Does anyone see potential?
Cole, this is a great question. I know I have been blogging about Twitter after having been exposed to it at Northern Voice two weeks ago. Really interesting possibilities here. As an example, that is how I found your blog, via the Twitter blog that mentioned you and your thinking about Twitter. I am wondering about Twitter as an opportunity to bring people together without actively disturbing one another.
Interesting world where we live. So glad the dot.com mess is behind us . . .
Posted by: Jeffrey Keefer | 03/12/2007 at 08:00 PM